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The Kashmir Timeline

Jamia Masjid, Srinagar

The Valley's great congregational mosque.

Jamia Masjid, Srinagar photograph

Photo: Mike Prince from Bangalore, India · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Begun by Sultan Sikandar and enlarged by Zain-ul-Abidin, the Jamia Masjid is built around a large garden courtyard. Its halls are held up by hundreds of wooden pillars, each cut from a single deodar trunk, and its entrances are topped with the tiered, pyramid-shaped roofs typical of Kashmir.

Facts

  • The mosque burned several times. Much of the present building dates from rebuilding after a fire in 1674, with later repairs.
  • It has 378 wooden pillars.
  • Tens of thousands of people can pray here at once.